West Papuan Liberation Army is not a terrorist organization !

Philip Mark Mehrtens taken hostage by Papuan freedom fighters on February 7, 2023

In the eyes of the Indonesian government, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) is a terrorist group that must be eradicated.

Looking at history, the term separatist terrorist was used to label TPNPB after the shooting of the head of the Indonesian intelligence agency General Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, in 2021.

For many Papuans, it is simply a brand deliberately created by the Indonesian regime to stigmatize the Papuan independence movement. Moreover, this crude jargon makes no sense: none of these Papuan fighters uphold a radical ideology like ISIS and JAD.

What has actually happened is that for more than sixty years, all components of Papuan society have been persistently fighting against the systemic racist policies of the Indonesian government.

The armed struggle that is currently taking place in several regions such as Nduga Regency, Intan Jaya, Puncak Papua, Puncak Jaya, Maybrat, Yahukimo and Bintang Mountains is carried out solely to maintain Papuans' survival and the integrity of their land.

Recently, various Indonesian medias have built a narrative that cornered the TPNPB hostage-taking against Captain Philip Mark Mehrtens, a citizen from New Zealand, as a barbaric act. Without justifying it, we must emphasize here that Papuan fighters have never captured people outside Papua or abroad. What Egianus Kagoya, Goliat Tabuni, and many other papuan freedom fighters did was essentially the same as the guerrilla warfare launched by General Sudirman against the Dutch colonial forces during the Indonesian independence war (1945-1949).

Papua's struggle is in line with the preamble of the Indonesian constitution which reads:
"That freedom is the right of all nations. And therefore, colonialism in the world must be abolished because it is not in accordance with humanity and justice".

It is time for all components of the Indonesian state to implement this sacred phrase purely and consistently, starting from the president and the chairman of the Indonesian people's representative council.